Group Members: Erik and Erin

1) The Success of Sex Trafficking in Russia

Erin Tudor

Russian Flag

Eastern Europe is known for its sex trafficking. There is often mention of Eastern European prostitutes in American media. Because of the commonality of Eastern European women being trafficked, a logical train of thought is how have so many women been trafficked and why is it such a popular place to recruit women. Sex trafficking in Eastern Europe has become successful due to organized crime, inadequate government action against trafficking, and finally the repercussions the fall of the Soviet Union had on now former Soviet states.

Organized crime is present worldwide and has recently begun to play a larger role in sex trafficking. The involvement of organized crime in sex trafficking coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. After the collapse, sex trafficking became increasingly prominent in Eastern Europe[1]. The Russian mafia was present even before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and therefore took advantage of the situation that the fall of the Soviet Union created.[2] The Russian mafia had the resources to exploit the situation to their advantage, because they had more members, groups, alliances with other organized crime groups and a broader base for operations.[3] By organized crime becoming involved in the sex trafficking business, it insured that it was an industry that would not easily go away. Because there is pretty much a guarantee that organized crime will always be able to make money from sex trafficking they will not easily give up an investment from which they can make so much money. Old Russian mafia also had the best connections with the “upper world,” for example the police, public officials, and businessmen. As a result of these connections, they were able to provide more services such as sex trafficking.[4] By the end of the 1990s, the Russian Mafia had taken over large parts of the economy and expanded their criminal services beyond what they had previously provided.[5] During this time, an estimated $10 billion was generated annually by the Mafia and it was thought to account for 40 percent of Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP), which is the market value of the final goods or services which were produced in a country during a certain period.[6] GDP is often used to measure a country’s economic wellbeing. In both Russia and Soviet Republics, organized crime groups are involved in some way with the sex industry. For example, in the mid-1990s there were 200 illegal sex businesses in Moscow alone, which were either owned or protected by the Mafia.[7] In the Russian Mafia, the relationship between the Mafia, the police and authorities can be characterized as cooperation and collaboration, because many Mafia members are former military or KGB agents.[8] Having members of the Mafia affiliated with the government gives them contacts within the government as well as knowledge of the businesses. Success of the Russian Mafia has also stemmed from their diverse business activity, for example sex trafficking, money laundering, smuggling weapons, cars, fuel, cigarettes and drugs, as well as bribing officials, forging documents and racketeering. They also had profits on a global scale, and were able to make connections to organized crime in other countries.[9]

Post Soviet collapse two levels of Russian crime developed - the high level, with the older, more developed Russian Mafia, and the lower level Mafia. The higher level of the mafia mostly profits from the sex trade through extortion, money laundering, club ownership, and other related investments. On the other hand, the lower level mafias are the ones actively involved in setting up and carrying out sex trafficking from Russia and other newly independent states.[10] Organized crime is also involved in the operation of ‘employment agencies’. Women often turn to employment agencies when looking for work abroad, because they specialize in placing women in that field. However, they generally end up being illegal operations.[11] , The organized crime groups are well enough integrated into society that many of their organizations are deemed reputable, so women are more willing to trust them.

Lack of government action against sex trafficking is another reason why it has grown to be such a successful industry. According to the 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report, Russia is seen as a “Tier 2 Watch List”, which refers to a country “whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards AND:

a) The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing;b) There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year; orc) The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.”[12]

Although there are not specific details as to why Russia in on the Tier 2 watch list, the fact that it is shows that Russia is not doing all she could to rectify the current trafficking situation taking place within her borders. In the report it mentions how despite efforts by the government, Russia has failed to demonstrate evidence of increasing efforts to address human trafficking, which is why Russia has been Tier 2 watch list for the past 8 consecutive years.[13] This is saying something about their policy towards trafficking considering that the Russian government has a written plan, which if it was implemented would constitute significant efforts against trafficking. It would also bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.[14] The Russian government is incredibly instrumental in the reduction of sex trafficking and will hopefully eliminate it eventually. Simply creating plans and not actually doing anything with them, does nothing to actually help the situation. It allows the Russian government to say they have a plan to stop trafficking, even though in reality they are doing nothing to actually stop the trafficking.

Another problem with the Russian governments’ course of action against sex trafficking is that they have recently made no noticeable attempts to spread awareness of sex trafficking or trafficking in general. There have been some local attempts to spread awareness that were assisted by government funding, however.[15] While awareness will not always prevent women being recruited by traffickers, in some cases it can help. Women do report that they have heard of the schemes that traffickers think up, but many women think that it will not happen to them. However, there are still more women who are unaware that they might be tricked into forced prostitution or some other sex-related work. The overall recommendations for Russia only reinforce the notion that there is a lot more that their government could be doing but are not. Some suggestions include the development of formal, national procedures to guide their law enforcement with trafficking cases and victim assistance,[16] increase efforts to identify and assist victims of both sex and labor trafficking, and the implementation of a formal policy to ensure that identified victims of trafficking are not punished or detained and deported.[17] These are only a few of the recommendations for Russia by the TIP Report from 2011. If all of these recommendations were followed, Russia would be able to take great strides towards combating sex trafficking.

Another major problem with the Russian government’s lack of action is the widespread view that the commercial sex trade in an “artificial problem”.[18] This is the general opinion prevalent among authorities. One excellent example of this is a quote from a “relatively” senior Interior Ministry (MVD) official:

“[t]he Interior Ministry is not particularly concerned about [trafficking] as there are no criminal contents in it. All offences against the women who departed are committed in the territories of the countries to which they go. That means it is those countries’ problem. In general, the discussion about trafficking women has come to us from the West. The noise on that occasion is maintained by audacious feminist organizations that promise help, but do not help the victims in any way. They receive grants and for the money they disseminate information that does not correspond to the reality”[19]

This attitude is very clearly against the acknowledgement that Russia should deal with its trafficking problem. This official even goes as far as to say that it’s not Russia’s problem that women are being trafficked there, but instead that it is the fault of the origin country for not doing more to initially prevent it. With attitudes such as this one, it should come as no surprise that there in a general lack of “political will” to tackle this problem in a comprehensive fashion.[20] This makes it clear that a lack of government action has contributed to the success of sex trafficking in Russia. What with the lack of government motivation to attack the problem, inadequate training for how to deal with trafficking cases, and having a plan which has not yet been implemented, it can be concluded that the Russian government is a contributor to the success of sex trafficking.

The role that the collapse of the Soviet Union played in the success of sex trafficking in Russia would be very difficult to discount. This is due in large part to the transitional economy post-Soviet regime.[21] During the Soviet regime there were social guarantees and protections which when lost were felt particularly hard by both women and children.[22] In the 1991 “chaotic” post-Communist transition, a large portion of the Russian population was experiencing widespread poverty and lack of economic opportunities. This was especially true for women and children.[23] The economic decentralization and privatization had the end result of downsizing some industrial branches and the elimination of many textile factories, and other female labor dominated industries.[24] Between 1990 and 1995, 7.6 million jobs held by women had been eliminated, a loss of 20 percent of jobs held by women. During the same period, only 1.6 percent of jobs held by men were eliminated.[25] This is a large discrepancy between the jobs lost, showing that the industries that were hit the hardest were those where women were the majority of the employees and or that it was the preference to maintain the men’s jobs over the women’s. In either case the women end up in an economically poorer situation. Also in the late 1990s women accounted for over 70 percent of the officially unemployed.[26] This also underlines the fact that women were becoming less economically well off than men. There are also discrepancies in the wages paid to women going as far back as the 1980s. In the Soviet Republics in the 1980s wages for women were 20-30 percent lower than men’s, but as the Soviet Union broke up the wage difference in Russia increased from women’s wages being 70 percent of men’s in 1989 to 40 percent in 1995.[27]

Russian Poverty

With women making less than men, and many women not having jobs at all to help support their families, they were in need of good paying jobs. This made the women easy prey for recruiters. In many cases women were more prone to answer advertisements promising housing and high salaries in exchange for unskilled labor in Russia or abroad.[28] Of the 33 occupational listings there are more women than men employed in 10 fields for women 35 and under and 13 for the women over 35 years of age[29]. It should also be noted that of the population 15-64 years of age, which is working age, 47,480,851 persons are male while 52,113,279 are female.[30] That’s a difference of close to 4 million more women than men, and when considering that there are already more men employed than women, it demonstrates just how many women are currently unemployed and therefore probably in poor economic standing. The fields where women made up a larger part of the work force include teaching professionals, models, salespersons, and demonstrators, laborers in manufacturing building, transport, communications, geology, and prospecting, information, documentation, accounting and bookkeeping clerks. There were others but many of these jobs are, stereotypically, considered women’s jobs. This again supports that Russia still has problems with gender equality post-Soviet and that women are being forced to look more desperately for work. Olga, one woman from Russia who fell prey to recruiters was promised, by a female acquaintance just returning from Israel with lots of money, work as a housemaid in shops and bars. The offer of making more money really appealed to Olga so she went along willingly with the trafficker’s scheme. She ended up being sold into prostitution, which was far from what she was promised.[31] The fact that Olga is not the only one so willing to believe that a better economic situation for her is only a few countries away, and is willing to leave behind her life so lightly, really emphasizes the ease that traffickers have in finding women to traffic. Even statistically many women are interested in leaving for higher earnings. Of women interviewed about reasons for emigrating, 86 percent said seeking higher earnings.[32]

In conclusion it is quite clear that all of the factors, the involvement of organized crime, lack of government action and finally the collapse of the Soviet Union with its resulting repercussions all contributed to the success of sex trafficking in Russia. Sex trafficking likely would not have grown into the large industry it is in Russia today without the financial backing from organized crime groups and the organization of sex trafficking into a business. The lack of government action against sex trafficking only allows it to grow into a larger industry. As well as the attitude towards sex trafficking, viewing it as an imagined problem created a lack of political will to actually deal with the problem. Finally the stress applied to economy post-Soviet collapse forced women to more desperate means of finding jobs, due to lack of economic opportunities. With all of these factors happening at the same time, it comes as no surprise that sex trafficking in Russia has grown so successful.

Anti-Trafficking Campaign

[1] Kathryn Farr, Sex Trafficking the Global Market in Women and Children, ed. George Ritzer (New York: Worth Publishers, 2005), 96

[2]Ibid, pg. 99

[3] Ibid, pg. 97

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid, pg. 99

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid, pg. 100

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Kathryn Farr, Sex Trafficking the Global Market in Women and Children, ed. George Ritzer (New York: Worth Publishers, 2005), 101

[11] Francince Pickup, "More Words but No Action?" Gender and Development 6, no. 1 (March 1998): 47, http://tinyurl.com/449on74.

[12] "Country Narratives: Countries N Through Z," U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2011/164233.htm.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] "Country Narratives: Countries N Through Z," U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2011/164233.htm.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Alexander V. Orlova, "Trafficking of Women and Children for Expoitation in the Commercial Sex Trade: The Case of the Russian Federation," The Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law 6, no. 7 (2005): 174 http://tinyurl.com/ 3wvd7ot.

[19] Ibid, pg. 174-175

[20] Ibid, pg. 175

[21] Ibid, pg. 163

[22] Ibid.

[23] Ibid.

[24] Ibid, pg. 164

[25] Kathryn Farr, Sex Trafficking the Global Market in Women and Children, ed. George Ritzer (New York: Worth Publishers, 2005), 11

[26] Ibid.

[27] Ibid.

[28] Alexander V. Orlova, "Trafficking of Women and Children for Expoitation in the Commercial Sex Trade: The Case of the Russian Federation," The Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law 6, no. 7 (2005): 164 http://tinyurl.com/ 3wvd7ot.

[29] "SEGREGAT - Employment for Detailed Occupational Groups by Sex," LABORSTA Internet, http://laborsta.ilo.org/STP/guest.

[30] CIA- The World Factbook, last modified August 23, 2011, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rs.html.

[31] Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd, eds. To Plead Our Own Cause (Ithaca: Cornell University, 2008), 120

[32] Gillian Caldwell et al., "Capitalizing on Transition Economies: The Role of the Russian Mafiya in Trafficking Women for Forced Prostitution," in Illegal Immigration and Commercial Sex, ed. Phil Williams (London: Frank Cass, 1999), 49

2) Sex Trafficking (Abstract)

Erik Jensen

As we all know prostitution and drugs go hand in hand. Because my group is looking at the subject of sex trafficking, I want to look at the way drugs play a role in getting girls into the business of prostitution and how it creates the dependency that keeps them at work. I would like to find some personal narratives and find patterns within the narratives. If there is a constant flow in the way that drugs are used in sex trafficking we could move closer to a solution. Just like the case that we looked at in Seattle, finding people on the inside is key. Hearing the opinion of a pimp or former pimp would show me a lot about the way the drugs are used. Primary sources are going to be key with finding information because from the outside looking it is hard to figure out how the drug strategy is used. My first source, titled “Mothers and Children”, which is a collection of narratives written by former prostitutes. This book is going to be a perfect look into the lives of prostitutes including an in-depth explanation to the role that drugs have played in becoming a prostitute and staying in the business. By making the issue more personal, it will be easy to find patterns. This is the type of primary source I am looking for because there is nobody better to learn from than people that have lived the life of a prostitute. My second source is titled, “Prostitution and Drugs”. This gives a secondary source that gets deep into the core of the way that prostitution and drugs interact. This is going to be good to look at the history of why they have been paired together and why they seem to attract the same groups of people. Though both of these sources are great for my paper I would like to find more from the side of the pimp. Pimps are who make all the decisions as far as what drugs and when to use them. Once I get this point of view I feel that it will be much easier to take a holistic view on prostitution and drugs.